


Sunshine

by annaiva_v



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: F/M, M/M, Short One Shot, mermaid Richie Tozier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:02:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25082068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annaiva_v/pseuds/annaiva_v
Summary: I don't know what this is.
Relationships: Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 3
Kudos: 11





	Sunshine

Hindsight is 20/20. I should have realized that after all the years of my mom droning on about how terrible and scary the ocean is, that moving to a beach house with the ocean in my backyard, wasn’t a good idea. I’m basically terrified to go into my own backyard. The losers like to make fun of me for it. But it was the only huge fuck you to my mom that I could think of. Currently, it’s a huge fuck me, I’m literally scared of my own backyard. And to top this all off there’s a news report that a huge storm is coming my way tonight. I call Bev before mother nature decides to cut all my phone lines.

“Hey, Eddie. Hear about the storm tonight?” As usual, she knows exactly what I’m thinking. The rain is already beating against my windows.

“Is there any chance I could come to your place?” I know it’s pointless, they’ve already closed the roads to the mainland.

“If you have a boat and are willing to even get near the ocean, yes.” A crack of thunder shakes my house and the phone goes dead.

“Shit.” I place it back in its stand and run my hands through my hair. I know I won’t be sleeping tonight so I put on the kettle for some tea. I check each window to make sure it’s locked tight, and I pull the blinds shut. The kettle shrieks and I switch the burner off. Just as I’m pouring my tea the power cuts out.

“Fuck.” I curse. This night literally couldn’t get any worse. Another crack of thunder rattles my bones, and I can hear the distant crash of waves. Why did I have to get a beach house? Why couldn’t I be like every other kid and rent some shitty rat-infested apartment in New York? But no, I  _ had _ to spite my dead mom.

“Stupid fucking ocean.” A huge wave crashes into my yard and beats up against my sliding doors. I thank whatever God is in charge of sealing capacities, that no water gets into my house. Another wave crashes and I run up the steps, if the house does flood upstairs would be the safest spot. Thunder cracks in the sky and I burrow under my sheets as if it’ll make it stop. The storm rages on the outside as I try to hide from it.

The fact that I didn’t sleep a wink shows on my face. There are heavy bags under my eyes and I sway where I’m standing. Nevermind that I take a swig of my Monster and head downstairs. There’s no doubt in my mind that my backyard is an absolute mess, and I’m the only one who lives here. So it falls to me to clean it up. It’s not as bad as I thought, but there’s a bunch of sea shit strewn everywhere. I’ve got heavy-duty rubber gloves on and ten heavy-duty garbage bags, but I’m still hesitant to touch any of this. Who knows how many diseases are on one piece of seaweed? And what if there’s a sea urchin under one of these piles and I touch it? I gag and grab one of those garbage clamp things that I ‘borrowed’ from the community hall. It goes by surprisingly fast and a majority of the yard is visible again. I’m picking up the last piece of seaweed when something moves under it. I jump back with a yell and curiously poke at it. The thing moves and lets out a very human groan.

“Hello?” I call out tentatively, I Move back to seaweed and expose a human face. The man? blinks up at me and tries to back away but stops short with a pained groan. I fully remove the seaweed from him and gasp at his nudity and wounds. At least four fishhooks are protruding from his legs and torso.

“Shit, are you alright?” Stupid question Eddie. Of course, he’s not ok he’s got fucking hooks in him! Before I can even stop him the guy PULLS OUT the fishhooks, with only a small whimper.

“You can’t do that, do you know how unsanitary that is? You’ve probably already got blood poisoning from having rusty fucking fishhooks in you!” The man doesn’t seem at all concerned with this and just looks up at me curiously. His wounds are sluggishly leaking blood and he just stares up at me.

“You need medical help. Can you at least come inside so I can clean your wounds?” He doesn’t move or say anything, just looks at me.

“Do you even know English? If not I know like three words in french.” The man nods, so I assume he’s understood me.

“So do you want to come in or not?” I hold out my hand after he nods, but he doesn’t get up.

“Do you need help?” His wounds don’t seem paralyzing but he probably still fucking hurts. He nods and I crouch down and place his arm on my shoulder, I pull him up with me and begin to walk/drag him to my house. There’s a few drops of blood that land on my floor but I worry about getting the stranger some semblance of clothing. I give my baggy workout shorts and an oversized sleep shirt. Before he puts them on I wipe down and bandage his wounds. He smiles in thanks and puts on the clothes, they only just fit him.

“What’s your name? Where are you from?” He doesn’t answer and just looks around at my house.

“Do you talk?” He shakes his head no and I sigh, what the hell am I doing? I just let a stranger into my home who doesn’t even talk. He’s probably going to murder me as soon as turn my back.

“Do you have a name?” He nods, ok I can start there. He makes an almost whistling noise with his mouth and looks up at me. He’s probably concussed, that’s the only explanation for his strange behaviour.

“I’m just going to call you Richie.” He shrugs and I take that as a yes. I wonder if he has a family near here? They must be worried sick, or maybe he’s like me, on his own.

“Shit, I haven’t even told you my name. I’m Eddie.” He makes another whistling noise that I assume is him trying to pronounce my name. I nod and let him know that I’m making food. He stays seated but watches me the whole time, his eyes follow me around the kitchen. When I’m done I place a plate of chicken stir fry in front of him. He picks around it with his fingers and eats a red pepper piece. His face scrunches up cutely and he hastily eats all the vegetables, he leaves the chicken sitting there.

“Do you have a family?” He shakes his head and I hate that I feel even the slightest bit happy. He’s not jumping to leave because he presumably doesn’t have anywhere to go.

“Any friends?” Another no, he’s completely alone.

“Not to be mean or anything but you smell like the sea, and I don’t really vibe with that. So if you’re going to stay with me you have to shower.” When he doesn’t move I help him up and bring him upstairs. A bath would be ideal but I don’t want him sitting him the dirtied bloodied water, but he’s having trouble standing on his own. So the only option is for me to be in the shower with him. It’s less than ideal since we’ve just met, and he’s unfairly attractive. But I can’t have him staying with me smelling like my worst nightmare. I switch on the showerhead and he flinches.

“It’s fine, just some water.” I help him undress and get him under the spray. I keep my eyes above the waist, to protect his modesty. He doesn’t seem to know what to do so I step in after him and begin to lather his hair in shampoo. He closes his eyes and relaxes into my touch. Once he’s deemed clean by my standards I help him dry off. Since he’s been covered in seawater and dirt his had been matted and muted, but now his dark curls bounced with every movement. Completely wet his hair had been to the middle of his back and now they sit just below his shoulders. He seems to be squinting and feeling over things as he walks.

“Can you see properly?” He shakes his head and I curse. The poor guy probably needs glasses, I think I might have some lying around.

“Wait here.” I run-up to my room and riffle through all my drawers until a find a pair. They're pretty old and I’m not even sure the prescription will work for him. When I come back down he’s standing by the open windows, squinting to at the sea.

“Here.” I put them on his face for him and he smiles. His eyes are wide and he’s looking around mystified. 

“See?” His voice is unexpectedly deep, but it cracks halfway through the word.

“Yeah, see.” He smiles and walks over to me, takes my hand and kisses it. I feel a blush rise up on my cheeks.

“I’ve gotta call someone.” I back away from him and go to the phone, he follows me. When I pick it up and start dialling he looks absolutely floored. Almost like he’s never seen a phone before. Maybe he’s from a really poor family and they couldn’t afford all this stuff.

“Hey, Eddie how was your night?” Bev picks up right away and I can distantly hear Ben talking in the background.

“Terrible, I’m in a bit of a situation right now.” Richie tries to grab the phone from me and I slap his hand away.

“What have you done this time?” I can hear Ben asking what’s happening in the background.

“I found some guy laying naked in my yard, and now he’s in my house.”

“What the fuck? You, Eddie Kaspbrak, let a complete stranger into your home?” I sigh as Richie tries to make another grab at the phone.

“Yes I did ok, but he’s grown on me. Can you and Ben just come over? And also bring some of Ben’s old clothes please.” Before I can even hear Bev’s response Richie unplugs the phone. Without even thinking I smack him on the shoulder, he flinches back with a whimper.

“Shit, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.” He walks away and sulks in one of the kitchen chairs.

“I shouldn’t have hit you, it’s just I’m trying to do something and you were all up in my business. I’m sorry.” He doesn’t look up at me and turns the chair away. 

“Home.” His voice startles me.

“What?” He points towards the sea and repeats himself.

“You can’t live in the sea idiot.”

“Idiot.” I laugh and so does he.

“I’m sorry.” He turns his chair back around and smiles at me. I should probably try and teach him how to talk or something. So he can attest introduce himself if Ben and Beverly come.

“I’m going to teach you to talk.” He cocks his head to the right and watches me sit down in front of him.

“You are going to learn how to introduce yourself, so when my friends come over they’re not to weirded out. K?” He nods

“Ok so just repeat after me. Hi, I’m Richie.”

“Hi, I’m Ri-chie.” 

“Richie.”

“Yes?” The doorbell rings and Richie almost falls out of his chair. I rush to the door and open it. Bev walks right past me while Ben says hello.

“He’s cute.” I hear her call out from the main room and Ben follows me in.

“Hi, I’m Ri-chie.” Bev giggles at his pronunciation and his face falls, I subtly hit her on the arm.

“I’m Beverly and this is Ben.” Richie was and sits back down.

“So you found him naked in your yard and now you’ve what, adopted him?” I shrug and Richie follows the motion.

“I guess so, he doesn’t have anywhere else to go. He doesn’t know how to talk either.” Ben hands me a bag of his clothes and I give them to Richie. He dumps the bag on the table and begins to rifle through all the clothes.

“Are we the first to know?” I nod.

“Mike and Bill are on a boat somewhere and Stan’s on a trip with his wife.” I miss them all, especially Patty, she’s an absolute angel. Maybe Richie lived on a boat and that’s why he washed up in my yard.

“I need you guys to come shopping with me. I need to buy stuff and I don’t want him getting lost.” Richie wanders into the kitchen and starts going through my cabinets. That is exactly why I need Bev and Ben to help me out.

“Do you know where he’s from?” I shake my head and Beverly gives me a skeptical look.

“Eddie, have you thought this through? There could be something seriously wrong with him, why doesn’t he know how to talk? Richie might not even be his real name.” She’s making excellent points which I should have realized to all be red flags. But there’s just something about Richie that makes me trust him, he seems completely harmless.

“I trust him, he’s harmless.” Just to disprove my statement a crash comes from the kitchen. I run in there with Ben and Bev on my heels.

“What happened?” There’s broken glass on the floor and a few drops of blood.

“Home.” I almost slip on a puddle of water right beside him.

“Are you ok?” Bev asks

“Home.” He points to the wall, where the ocean would be.

“This is home. We have to go to the market and get you stuff so you can live here.” Tears gather in his eyes and he throws a shard of glass at the wall. I try to keep my calm and not completely lose my shit right now. He makes the strange whistling sounds from before and slams his hands on the ground. Maybe Bev was right, and he’s super unstable and is probably going to kill all of us. 

“This,” He gestures wildly with his hand.

“Not home.” The tears are fully running down his cheeks and I crouch by him.

“Eddie.” Bev hisses but I choose to ignore her.

“I’m sorry, why don’t you show me where home is?” I help him up and he leads me to the patio doors. We walk all the way down to the gentle waves, I let go of his hand when he starts to get closer.

“Come,” He grabs my hand and basically drags me until the water is licking at my toes. This isn’t safe the waters could easily turn deadly and pull me under. Richie lets go of my hand and runs into the water, disappearing beneath a wave.

“Richie!” He doesn’t come up and I ignore every screaming bell in my head as I jump in after him. What if he’s drowned and he can't get back to the surface? What if some horrible sea creature has killed him? A cold hand grips me and I open my mouth in a scream, forgetting that I’m underwater. Seawater fills my lungs and I try to swim to the surface. The hand pulls me deeper and my legs brush against something huge and scaly. My mom was right, there are horrible creatures who eat humans. Oh God, I hope Ben and Beverly come after me. Something cold presses against my lips and I take in a breath of air. Air! I must have died, that is the only explanation as to why I can suddenly breathe underwater. I open my eyes and Richie is in front of me. His black hair is floating around us and instead of legs, there’s a massive fishtail. I open my mouth to try and talk but all that comes out is bubbles. Richie makes a sound, almost like a quieter whale call. He pulls me upwards and we break the surface.

“Eds, home.”


End file.
